Cigarette package



Feb. 27, 1934-. PATTER'SON 1,948,593

CIGARETTE PACKAGE Filed May 14 1931 1 4 FIG. 2 l

ATTORN EY Patented Feb. 27, 1934 1,948,593 CIGARETTE PACKAGE MoreheadPatterson, New York, N. Y., assignor to American Machine & FoundryCompany, a corporation of New Jersey Application May 14, 1931. SerialNo. 537,450

' 9 Claims.

This invention relates to article packages, and more particularly to acigarette package having an outer wrapping of tough flexible materialsuch as cellulose hydrate or cellophane. An outer wrapper of this naturewhen properly sealed is air tight and provides protection againstmoisture and odor and adds to the appearance of the package. n the otherhand this wrapping has the disadvantage-that, being tough it isdifficult to tear 0 open, and. even more diflicult to tear along desiredlines to make an opening at one end so'that cigarettes can be extractedsingly or a few at a time while having the top end of the packagepartiall closed to retain the remaining cigarettes.

It is the main object of the present invention to remedy this difiicultyand to produce a cigarette package having an outer wrapping of thisnature so fashioned that the cellophane or other material will readilytear along the lines desired to make a neat opening near one corner ofthe package. Another object is to do this without inter- To this endadvantage is taken of a peculiarity of cellophane and like toughcellulosic materials, which is that though it is very difficult to tearthese materials from a smooth edge they tearwith great readiness whenthe edge from which the tear'is made is even slightly nicked, notched"or otherwise broken. Such nicks may be very shallow so that they do notin any way decrease the effect of an overlapping seam portion'and may,in

fact be so slight as to be almost invisible without interfering withtheir effectiveness.

With these and other objects not specifically mentioned in view, theinvention consists in certain constructions and combinations which willhereinafter be fully describe-d and then specifically set forth in theclaims hereunto appended. In the accompanying drawing in which likecharacters of reference indicate the same or like parts, Fig.'1 is aview in perspective of one form of applicants invention; Fig. 2 is aplan view partly broken away of the wrapper blank utilized in Fig. 1;Fig. 3 is a perspective view of another form carrying out the invention;Fig. 4 illustrates the blank utilized in Fig. 3; Fig. 5 is a perspectiveview of a third form of the invention; and Fig. 6 illustrates the blankemployed in Fig. 5.

In carrying the invention into effect there is provided a package havingan, outer wrapper with overlapping sealed flaps at one of its ends saidwrapper being provided with breaks in the edges of said flaps atsaidends to control 'the tearing of the wrapper to open a portion only ofthe package as for instance to produce a square opening of the endadjacent the corner of a cigarette package so that the cigarettes can beejected a few at a time. Preferably these breaks extend inwardly fromthe edge of the flap a distance less than the width of the sealedoverlap so that air tight sealing is not interfered with.

Referring now to the drawing a cigarette package, for example, ofgenerally rectangular form having broad and narrow side faces isillustrated. This package is ordinarily provided with a conventionalinner wrapping of foil, and paper unsealed at one end, and is providedwith an outer wrapping 10 of transparent cellulosic material,

preferably water proof, such as cellophane hav-' ing a water proofcoating. This outer wrapping has sealed edges forming a seam 11extending along one side face and over a corner onto the end face andalso having overlapping flaps 12 and 13 at said end face, is providedwith means for facilitating opening of a predetermined portion of theend. These means consist in the form shown in Fig. 1 of slits or nicks14 and 15 inthe overlapping flaps and nicks l7 and 18 to the side ofsaid flaps which may also be provided in the flaps at positions spacedfrom the nicks 14 and 15 but are preferably formed as shown in Fig. 1 inthe side seam adjacent the corner of the package.' It will be notedthatthese slits extend in from the edge of the cellophane outer wrappera distance less than ,thewidth of the glued or otherwise formedsealedportion 19, so that no leakage is caused by the slits as would be thecase if the wrapper were weakened by perforation.

In many populartypes of packages particularly cigarette packages, theglue stripe does not extend to the edge of the flap. advantage of in thepresent package to provide a sub flap 12a which may be gripped with the,fingers. v Accordingly, a package having a wrapper formed in accordancewith the present invention is opened as follows. The sub-flap 12a isgrasped and pulled back. In accordance with the observed properties ofcellophane and similar tough transparent cellulosic materials the slitor in fact any nick or break in the smooth edge of the material willpermit the material to be torn back to the rear corner 20 of the packageor beyond. The material can then be readily torn along or below thecorner 20 to the side face having the seam 11.

Since the tear isonly located generally by the nick in the flap 12and'in actual practice it is most convenient to tear the package aroundthe end along the line 25 of Fig. 5 at varying distances from said end;hence the tear line may strike the seam 11 at any point at its upperThis is taken end. If only one nick at the upper corner is provided ithas been found in practice that when the tear line is some distancetherefrom the cellophane will open up along the paste line or distortthe package before it will erase the seam 11. By means of a series ofclosely spaced nicks 17 and 18 in the overlapping and underlying edgesrespectively of the seam 11 the tear line wherever it crosses the seamwill be close to a nick and thus will easily start tearing thecellophane across the seam in accordance with the peculiarity of thisand similar materials already noted. Thus a neat opening at one cornerof the package will be provided.

In some types of packages the glue extends all the way to the edge ofthe flaps 12 and 13 or so nearly to the edge that no finger hold isprovided for making the package easy opening.

Under these circumstances a tongue 23 is provided adjacent one edge ofwhich extends the nick 14. By pulling back this tongue the package maybe opened as the package illustrated in Fig. 1 was opened by means ofthe sub-flaps.

In the form shown in Fig. 5, notches 24 are substituted for nicks,notches having been found desirable for some purposes because morevisible thus indicating to the user where to tear.

As shown in Figs. 1, 3 and 5 the breaks such as the nick 14 and thenotch 24 are provided centrally of the flaps 12 and 13 so that eitherhalf of the end may be opened, though other arrangements may be founddesirable and are contemplated. The several blanks illustrated in Figs.2, 4 and 6 each illustrate a way of providing the breaks referred towithout wasting any material since in no instance is any material thrownaway with the exception, of that from the notch 24 while at the sametime as shown the blanks are suited to feeding in strip form and cuttingfrom the strip so that these packages may be readily adapted to wrappingon present wrapping machines in which the wrapping material is fed incontinuous strip form.

It will be seen from the foregoing thata wrapping has been providedwhich overcomes one of the main objections to the use of cellophane andlike materials in packages of this kind, namely the difficulty oftearing open the package and stiff messy interfering wrinkled portionsthat result when it is finally torn open in the old way.

I claim:

1. A rectangular cigarette package with narrow and broad side faceshaving an outer wrapper folded about the package with an overlappingseam extending along one narrowside face and with overlapping sealedflaps at the end face of the package, and means for facilitating easyopening of a predetermined portion of the outer wrapper, said meanscomprising nicks for starting tears in the edge portions of theoverlapping flaps and other spaced nicks in the edge portions only ofthe wrapper along the side seam near the end face of the package.

2. A rectangular cigarette package with narrow and broad side faceshaving an outer cellophane wrapper folded about the package with anoverlapping seam extending along one narrow side face and withoverlapping sealed flaps at the end face of the package, and means forfacilitating easy opening of a predetermined portion of the outerwrapper, said means comprising breaks for starting tears in the edgeportions of the overlapping flaps and other breaks in the edge portionsof the cellophane wrapper near the point where the side seam joins theend face of the package, said breaks in the seam edge extending inwardlyfrom the edge a distance less than overlap ofthe seam.

3. A rectangular cigarette, package having narrow and broad side facesand having an inner unsealed wrapper and an outer completely sealedwrapper the outer wrapper being arranged with overlapping sealed edgesextending lengthwise of one end face and down each narrow side face theoverlapping edge portions only of said outer wrapper being provided withshallow nicks at an end face overlying the unsealed portion of the innerwrapper intermediate the juncture of said end face with the narrow sideportions and near said juncture on one of the side faces, the portionsof said outer wrapper other than the overlapping portions beingunbrokenand unweakened.

4. A rectangular package having an outer wrapper of water proofcellophane, said wrapper having sealed overlapping edges forming a sideseam across which it is desired to tear the cellophane without openingthe seam or distorting the wrapper, and a plurality of closely spacedshallow slits extending inwardly from each of said edges so that atleast one slit in each edge will be in a position approximately at thetear line to facilitate tearing across the seam.

5. A package having a wrapper with overlapping closure fiaps at one endand a seam formed by overlapping edges of the wrapper extending alongone side, at least one of said flaps and both of said overlapping edgeportions having weakened portions for starting tears inwardly from theedges thereof, said weakened portions being spaced along the length of.the overlapping portions to'provide a weakened portion in position torestart a tear across the seam wherever a tear happens to strike saidseam.

6. The combination with a package having overlapping portions forming aseam, of means for facilitating tearing open of a desired portion of thepackage along an irregular line crossing the seam, said means comprisinga series of spaced weakened locations along the overlapping portionsforming the seam for restarting the tear across that seam.

7. A package having a wrapper with overlapping closure fiaps at one endand a seam formed by overlapping edges of the wrapper extending alongone side, at least one of said flaps and both of said overlapping edgeportions having a weakened area in the overlapping portion only, tofacilitate tearing across both the closure formed by the flaps and theseam.

8. The combination with a package having overlapping portions forming aseam, of means wrapper, of means for facilitating tearing open a desiredportion of the package along an irregular line crossing a seam,comprising a series of breaks along both edges forming the seam.

MOREHEAD PATTERSON.

